Jay Glazer and Randy Couture Join Forces – MMAthletics

Three years ago, NFL defensive end Jared Allen was coming off of a disappointing 6 ½ sack season. He had shown too much potential to languish in underachievement. After the season, his friend Jay Glazer, an NFL reporter and host at FOX, urged him to join him at Arizona Combat Sports, a mixed martial arts school where Glazer trained in Arizona.

If Allen wanted to turn on the jets of his NFL career, Glazer promised that stepping into this other world would bring his NFL game to levels he only dreamed about. After little urging, Allen joined and embarked on an off-season that changed his life. Glazer and the crew at AZ Combat helped drop a stunning 25 pounds off of Allen’s frame, improved his punch, his step off the line and most of all, loosened and strengthened his hips and core beyond his imagination.

Perhaps more important than all of the physical advantages and gains combined, after training two-a-days in Brazilian Jui-Jitsu, Muay Thai, boxing and submission fighting, Allen brought an entirely new attitude into his NFL world. Jared Allen became one of the most feared forces in the NFL and stepped onto that field feeling like he was the baddest SOB in the stadium.

“Obviously it strengthened my core, my flexibility, my hips and eye-hand coordination and my cardio went through the roof. But more than that, it taught me how to push myself past barriers your mind puts up to stop you,” said Allen. “Fight training teaches you how to push past those blocks.”

Oh, by the way, Allen just so happened to lead the NFL in quarterback sacks that year, made his first Pro Bowl and was rewarded with the largest contract given to a defensive player in the history of the National Football League.

“I think it’s going to be the most important thing I did to help my career,” he said. “It totally changed my entire workout regiment. It’s so much easier on the body than running and all that stuff that puts impact on your joints. Plus, it’s fun. You won’t get burnt out doing the same old running and hills. You’ll push yourself further than you ever anticipated.”

Since then several NFL stars and a handful of Major League Baseball players and prospects have inquired of Glazer about MMA training conducive to their sports.

This off-season, Glazer began training former Heisman Trophy winner Matt Leinart. Leinart originally turned to Glazer to help transform his body. More importantly he realized that it was his attitude, will and fortitude that were seeing the most drastic changes. Leinart needed to take drastic measure to start seeing some of the potential he brought into this league but has yet to reach and MMA was just the tool.

“I love it, love it,” said Leinart. “I wanted to stay under the radar this season but this stuff is ridiculous. It’s incredible how much people have noticed a change in me, how I look, how I carry myself. I’m addicted.”

But to truly take this to the next level, Glazer recently turned to his friend and the most legendary name in the history of the Ultimate Fighting Championship and mixed martial arts, Randy “The Natural” Couture. The former heavyweight and light heavyweight king is renowned as one of the faces that launched the UFC to its current stardom.

Couture, who Time magazine called “Ultimate Fighting’s Babe Ruth,” has pushed his body past extremes usually reserved for folk lore. The man voted the greatest fighter of all time has a career that saw him first take the UFC heavyweight title, then drop down to win the light heavyweight title with wins over legends like Tito Ortiz and Chuck Liddell.

Then, if that wasn’t impressive enough, he came out of retirement and gave up 7 inches and 50 pounds in thoroughly dominating Tim Sylvia to once again with the UFC heavyweight title. Plain and simple, even at 45 Couture probably knows how to make the human body excel and push past limits better than any man on Earth.

But putting aside his fight career, Couture also started Xtreme Couture gym and fight team in Las Vegas, a team that has housed some of the greatest fighters in the game today. Forrest Griffin, Vanderlei Silva, Gina Carano, Frank Trigg, Gray Maynard, Jay Hieron, Tyson Griffin and Mike Pyle have all turned to Couture and his coaches to run their training.

Even the legendary Vitor Belfort who had three wars with Couture decided the only way to take his game back to where it needed to b was to leave Brazil, move to Vegas and train under his former opponent. Under Couture’s tutelage, “The Phenom” Belfort has seen a tremendous resurgence in his career.

Now, for the first time, Couture is opening his doors and his team to the world of professional sports. Together, Couture and Glazer have developed MMAthletics, a full-time training camp designed solely for professional athletes of other sports looking to propel their careers to heights they never knew possible. If you’re looking for greatness, look no further.

At MMAthletics, we won’t be looking to simply get our athletes into shape. Couture, Glazer and our team of coaches and trainers will design an intensive program integrating MMA training to strengthen specific areas conducive to an athlete’s sport and position.

Obviously, the needs of a quarterback are different from that of an offensive lineman, whose needs are different from an NHL defenseman and a shortstop in MLB. Our athletes will train with each other and not those outside the world of pro sports.

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